Svard, Scifo receive weekly honors

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Freshman Elin Svärd (Falun, Dalarna, Sweden) and sophomore Alaina Scifo (Ipswich, Great Britain) are recipients of weekly awards from the Northeast Conference and CollegeSwimming, both organizations announced Tuesday.

Svard was the recipient of the NEC's Rookie of the Week honor after winning five total races, including three individual events, at the Gompei Invitational over the weekend. Scifo is CollegeSwimming's Northeast Conference Women's Swimmer of the Week after she had the first- and fifth-best swims of the event, according to the website's scoring system.

Her times in the 200 IM (2:05.99) and 100 fly (56.10) are the best times in the conference this season, while her 400 IM race (4:31.14) cracked the Top 5 on the conference leaderboard. She also was part of the 200 and 400 medley relay teams that took first en route to the Bulldogs' third-place finish at the event.

Scifo's 200 back (2:00.94) is ranked as the top women's swim of the invitational and the fourth-best overall. Her 100 back (56.21) is fifth-best. The sophomore also won five races overall, including three relays and two individual events.

Svard is the ninth Bulldog to earn a weekly award this season, the highest total amongst any team in the league. She is the second Bryant swimmer to win Rookie of the Week, following up Alexa Rivera's (Boynton Beach, Fla.) honor on November 7.

Scifo is the third straight Bulldog to win the honor from CollegeSwimming, with junior Jillian Rice (Trumbull, Conn.) taking the previous two awards.

Bryant is back in action after the calendar turns to 2018, with a January 13 dual meet against UMass at Noon at the Chace Athletic Center.